The serpent's lair
by Katie237
Summary: Post-Crisis short story - 6 months ago, Barry went missing fighting the Anti-Monitor and has since been presumed dead. The team did the best to move on and keep fighting to good fight without him, but their convictions get shook up after they come face to face with a very familiar face inside the secret lair of the blackhole organization.


**A/N: After not having written anything in months, two of my best friends convinced me to keep trying if that's what I wanted to do, so here I am. I might cut back on the number of sites I post and/or keep stories I write to myself. I don't know yet, just giving one last shot everywhere to see if people are still here and interested.**

**I started this story before Crisis started airing and changed it very slightly. I still think Barry can go missing and be presumed dead (even if permanent death is out of the table), and I have a theory that Blackhole could have way larger plans, like in the comics. So, the two ideas just mixed up.**

**Enjoy! **

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"Oh my God," whispered Ralph, unable to hear himself pronounced the words while shock took control of his whole body.

A cold tremor ran down his back, and his bottom lip trembled.

"Ralph?" A voice echoed in his ears but also got lost somewhere before reaching his brain.

"It can't be," gulped out the Elongated Man as he found himself unable to detach his eyes from the cylindrical prison of glass in front of him. As far as he was concerned, right now, everything else in the entire universe had ceased to exist. Everything other than the sight that caught his attention.

A Black Hole agent could surge from the darkness and shoot him down at any time, but the danger wasn't a strong enough argument for looking away. Who lowered the temperature? Why was it so cold all of a sudden? Was it just because of the shock?

"Ralph?" Insisted Cisco's voice, "what's going on?"

"Are you alright?" Worriedly said Killer Frost over the comms, "I'm coming your way," she added just as quietly without even giving the man a chance to answer back.

The ice metahuman made a full turn around in her Cisco-made uniform and stretched her legs to head back toward where she'd last seen her teammate. Maybe they shouldn't have split up inside the Black Hole facility. Whose bright idea was that anyway? Oh right, that was hers...

Their insistent words finally reached the hero who forced himself back to the present. Ralph swallowed with difficulty and gathered his words before speaking up with shaking lips, "we have to evacuate. Now," he said, with his fists closing as his head turned around to ensure he was still in the clear.

The last thing they needed was for some thugs to show and mess up with his newly formed plan. No matter what, one thing was for sure; Elongated Man would fight with his life if he had to rather than leave without what was in front of him.

Once again, his thought got distracted by the voice in his ear.

"Ralph, we can't do this," hurriedly added Cisco from behind his mic safe inside the cortex, hopefully before Ralph had a chance to open a breach. They couldn't turn around and leave, "you know how long it took for Iris and the rest of us to track their hideout. If once they discover we've been there, they change location, we'll have to do it all over again."

Ralph groaned and unconsciously reached out for his comms, tempted to close the link between himself and the engineer, even if that probably wouldn't be such a good idea. They didn't have time for th-

A barely contained gasp on his right jolted the stretching hero as his hand was midway into his trajectory toward his ear and prompted him to turn around. The adrenaline that pumped through his veins a second ago died out, mostly, when he recognized the person behind him, Killer Frost. The shock had taken over her tender features and was mirroring her coworker's expression.

"We're leaving," she affirmed in a way that was leaving no place for questioning. "Is he-" she started to say, gulping down her saliva as she found herself unable to finish the sentence.

"They wouldn't keep him in there if he wasn't," answered Ralph with a shaking voice that was betraying his fears. How the hell was he supposed to know the answer to that question?

Frost nodded, remembering Caitlin's words from last fall; heroes are what they are because they act despite their fears, not because they don't experience any. Taking control of her emotions, the ice queen raised her hands and instructed, "back away, and get ready to assist."

A mist of cold surrounded her hands for half a second as the metahuman gathered her abilities. Then, as she released her powers, she sent the ice steam to surround the glass prison.

It was Ralph's turn now. After one swift glance over his left shoulder, ensuring they still had time to free the prisoner, Elongated Man closed his right hand into a fist and enlarged it instantly.

_'Careful'_ mouthed the ice meta, not that she had to; Ralph would never intentionally wound anyone, especially the people he cares about.

When the oversized fist connected with the fragilized glass, the prison broke it instantly, and pieces flew in various directions. It was only after all these fragments were done falling on the ground that the heroes' glances were able again to see the precious cargo trapped behind the newly fallen wall, the missing and presumed dead Barry Allen. The Scarlet Speedster hadn't been seen since that fatal day of December 10th, 2019, during that ultimate battle against the Anti-Monitor.

After the hero came back to the Waverider, telling that Earth 90 Barry sacrificed himself at his place, the whole team thought that their friend was in the clear. Boy, were they wrong. Barely hours later, as they were all going toes to toes with their mortal enemy, the speedster disappeared in a loud and blinding flash of white light, never to be seen again. What a horrible twist of fate for the hero who deserved so much more.

On that fateful day, six months ago, no body was ever found. The only piece of the suit that was retrieved was a shredded and severely damaged fragment of the emblem. So, how could the speedster be alive, and also be a prisoner of the criminal organization Blackhole?

Ralph's heart tightened as more details registered into his mind. All his eyes could see was how scary thin Barry was and how countless cuts were on his old grey t-shirt and pants. Dry blood was covering most of Barry's chest while the hero also clearly had a broken nose, two fingers bending in unnatural angle in his right hand, and a badly swollen left eye, among other things.

There were so many damages. And it was without counting the, as Elongated Man himself called it last year, the sunburn from hell that was all over his face. Ultraviolet. It had to be. Plus, who knew what else was hidden behind the surface?

The hero's train of thought was interrupted by a piercing alarm that erupted in the room. So much for being unseen. But that's probably what happens when you destroy a glass prison in the middle of an ultra-secret and ultra-protected lair.

Unfazed by all the cacophony, Killer Frost climbed on the step and joined the seemingly unconscious superhero who was hanging from the ceiling with tight handcuffs digging into the tender skin. An extra flashing bracelet was tightly secured around his right wrist, one that was probably dampening his speed.

Rapidly approaching footsteps increased Ralph's heartbeat, and he turned his head in the direction of the door from which he entered the room. The hurried footsteps were quickly becoming closer.

"We have company," loudly informed Ralph over the alarm.

Nodding her understanding, Killer Frost grabbed the handcuffs between her hands and proceeded with freezing them.

Barry's prison wasn't the only one in this room; there were a good dozen of them, and a few other unconscious people were there, but the team was running out of time. If they didn't move now, it wouldn't be long before they'd be outnumbered.

"Get ready to get us out!" She shouted as she crushed the fragilized items in her grasp.

The double door opened widely, and over a dozen soldiers, armed to the teeth, rushed inside with Ultraviolet on their tail.

The handcuffs broke, and Barry's limp form slumped forward and into the ice metahuman's waiting arms.

"Stop right there!" Shouted the first soldier in front of the row with his automatic weapon raised and pointed toward the intruders.

The following actions unfolded in slow motion. Ralph opened a breach. His companion moved down from the steps, dragging the dead weight of the prisoner. The soldiers fired. Ultraviolet advanced to get in position. The ice metahuman jumped into the inviting blue portal...

Seeing the danger, the Elongated Man protectively stretched his body 'til he was nearly twice as large as the hero who moved into the breach first with the unconscious Flash. Then, the hero proceeded to walk backward into the blue portal. Bullets rebounded on his elastic body as he landed on the other side, the same ones that would've probably hurt, or worse, his friends if it hadn't been for Ralph's quick thinking. Only one bullet managed to pass by him, but, thankfully, it crashed into the opposite cortex's wall without hurting a soul. Recognition and disbelief flickered inside Cisco's eyes when he got a glance at the face of the guest his teammates decided to bring back home.

The crucial mission was just an afterthought now as the engineer's mouth went parched.

"H...ho...h...how?" He stuttered, only getting a glare from Frost as an answer.

"Not now," she growled, eyeing the medbay. Getting the message, Ralph hurried to get a hold on Barry's leg and assist the other metahuman in carrying the wounded man.

Questions will have to wait.

As swiftly as humanly possible, the team carried their fallen friend straight to the medbay and put him on the not-so-comfortable bed at the back of the room. A groan passed on Barry's cracked and bleeding lips, and his fingers twitched slightly, but no other sign came to indicate he was coming back to a superior level of awareness.

The piercing blue eyes of the ice queen closed, and her smooth white hair changed color, switching to a more brown tone in the next instant. Swiftly switching into the driver's seat of her own body, Caitlin took control as if she had never stopped holding the reins. Jumping into action, she turned around, almost bumping into Cisco in her quick action and grabbed a pair of trauma shears.

The long bottom part of her Killer Frost's suit danced with her quick movements, and the doctor didn't try to hide her groan of annoyance when she brushed again against her friend. As much as she adored the engineer, he was in the way and preventing her from being as efficient as she could be. Finally understanding the unspoken message, Cisco moved back while awkwardly looking around, desperately looking for something to do to help.

In almost complete silence, only filed by the anxious breathings of Barry's friends in the back of the room, Caitlin worked quickly to cut away Barry's grey shirt. Well, not that it was hard since it already was half-torn anyway.

The horror that was hidden underneath caused a synchronized gasp to escape everyone's lips.

The man's chest was covered by blood, cut, and ecchymosis. There wasn't a single inch that was clean of it. Some wounds were more recent than others, while an impressive pitch-black bruise was covering most of the bottom half of his chest. Who knew how many more of these injuries had existed in the past but that was already gone considering Barry's healing factor? That's unless he had been wearing his power dampening bracelet the whole time.

Speaking of the entire time, how long was that exactly? Barry die-

No, not died. Barry went missing six months ago. There's no way he had been a prisoner of Blackhole this whole time. Or, could it be?

"Can y-"

"On it!" Exclaimed Cisco, almost telepathically reading his friend's mind. In order to do a triage of the wounds' priority, the doctor needed to see them.

Without the need for any further instructions, Vibe went into action to wipe away the blood off his unconscious friend. Speaking of unconscious…

The moment Caitlin took a firm hold on Barry's right forearm and pressed her fingers just under the crook of his arm, frowning at the sight of the multiple red dots on the tender skin, Barry's eyes sharply opened. Or, to be exact, the right eye opened up as the other one was way too badly swollen to be able to do the same. It only took one glance for Caitlin to know that something was wrong, really wrong; Flash's eye wasn't green anymore.

Instead of the usual color, what Caitlin witnessed was a pale blue shade, one that was way too pale and was covering almost his entire retina. The speedster looked utterly blind.

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**A/N: Here we go, let me know if you're still here and if you want more from this story and for other stories (unfinished and new ones) from me in the future.**


End file.
